When Haru decided to go meet the Rune Knight’s designated blacksmith that morning, he did not expect to spend the entire day there. He just wanted to check if there are any good armour that he can get for Akira or himself. Haru planned on training with Akira and he did not like pain. That was good enough reason to consider an armour. Nevertheless, when the duo entered the blacksmith’s station, Barras requested them to stay and assist with the overwhelming orders he was getting. And of course, Haru being Haru, agreed immediately without consulting Akira.

The assistant who sat on a corner with a broken arm, looked like his puppy died. Haru approached him and offered to heal his broken hand. “I am a healer. Shall I try mending your bone?” he asked. “Don’t bother. I have seen the best mage doctor in town. Multiple fractures and all of them concentrated around a single spot. It’s gonna take weeks, if not months of recovery, even with advanced healing magic,” he said, almost sobbing in sorrow. Hearing him whine, Haru decided it was best to avoid talking about his hand; especially if the duo was going to be spending the entire day there.

While Barras was too nice to say anything, his nervous glances towards his assistant and the two Rune Knights said enough. He did not want them wasting any time and hoped they would get to work as soon as possible. Noticing this, Haru quickly walked to the tools corner and picked up two hammers; one for him and another for Akira. He handed her the spare and got to work immediately. Meanwhile, the assistant pulled out the molten metal from the forge using his working hand and placed it on the anvil for them. “Let’s go!” Haru said, hammering it first and giving enough time for Akira to do the same. Like so, the two would alternate until the assistant approved of the flatness of the metal.

Breathing heavily between each hammering, Haru would attempt to distract himself from the tiring monotonous chore. “So, Akira? What’s with you and Fairy Tail?” he would ask.

Akira grit her teeth, it took the dark-dweller all her willpower, to not yank Tsuru aside and give him a piece of her mind. Ever since they had set foot in this town, he'd been going out of his way to help almost anyone he'd laid eyes on. Till he was offering to heal the arm, she could sort of sympathize, but when the fellow page, didn't even attempt worming his way out of the job the smith had requested, she fumed inside.

Nonetheless, maybe she could demand to be repaid in some good gear... The girl was just making excuses for the lack of fight in her. She just didn't have it in her to argue, with Mr. Optimistic, instead she thought of directing all her frustration into hammering the bloody wad of molten iron. When he urged her, she let slip some of her dismay by muttering 'Like you've left us a choice...' her fingers closed around the wooden arm of the hammer, when he let go she realised just how heavy it was, it clunked against the anvil, earning her a worried stare from Barras. Taking this as a personal defeat, she decided to face the challenge, not willing to accept that she was actually that weak.

With shaking hands, she lifted the hammer away from the anvil for long enough so Barras could place the glowing molten metal on the anvil. Her partner took the first stab at it... Then Akira's hammer landed, punctuating Tsuru's question, with a soft clunk, followed by the soft impatient clucking from Barras. Akira shot a scathing look towards the smith, and then at Tsuru, defensively. 'What do you mean? I never said anything about Fairy Tail bothering me...' she said, attempting another swing, which made a considerably louder sound, but still not good enough... Sighing, she revealed the truth. 'Fine... I applied for Fairy Tail, but apparently, I was too much of a loser to get in.' she grunted, wondering what Tsuru was going to do with this honest revelation, for his sake, he better not laugh at her.

Haru realized how terrible his strength was after just ten minutes with the hammer. He had no idea how he was going to handle that the entire day. But there was no way he was going to give up before Akira did. So, the young man grit his teeth and kept hammering. Haru cocked one eye when Akira tried to avoid his question, but before he could prod her further, she confessed. The scarlet-haired teen frowned when he heard her reason. “Really? They rejected you? That’s hard to believe… Was it one of the high-ranking members?” Haru asked, curious to know what kind of a guild Fairy Tail was. After all, everything he had heard about the guild had been nothing short of legendary since he set foot on Magnolia.

Listening to their conversation, the assistant butted in. “Fairy Tail sure does decline a lot of people’s requests. They simply can’t afford to have every average kid in the continent be part of their guild,” he said with pride, although Haru wasn’t sure where this pride was coming from considering the assistant was not a part of the guild himself. Haru turned towards the assistant and looked at him with squinted eyes. “Did you just call my partner average?” he asked, hammering as hard as he can and much closer to the assistant’s hands than necessary. The scared assistant got the message and immediately retracted his comment. “No… No! Sorry… That’s not what I meant,” he whimpered. Haru wouldn’t hurt anyone, but he had no qualms about scaring them.

“I say screw the guilds,” Haru said, looking at Akira. “It is no secret that they are more interested in fame and Jewels than justice,” he finished, with another heavy slam on the hot metal. While he was mostly optimistic, he wasn’t a blind fool. He could see how the economy worked. “Everyone makes fun of Rune Knights… Call us losers. But we are the only ones who do good for the sake of goodness, and not because we want to get famous or rich. We should be proud,” he would say, looking right into Akira’s eyes.

When he asked her for confirmation, she shrugged, but her arm shivered a little, out of effort and out of the frustration she clearly still held onto... Recounting it wasn't easy, but she kept it brief, attempting to sieve as much of her emotions out 'I was on my way for the interview and I ran into this man... and he said he was coming from fairy-tail and that a scrub like me would never be accepted into that fanc-' but she was interrupted by the assistant. She swallowed her anger like she always did at such rebukes.

But a sharp clang startled her as the assistant swiftly pulled his fingers away from the anvil where they had been resting, Tsuru's vigor surprised her. She regarded him impassively, but in the depths of her heart, the way he defended her, made her feel warm. It was amusing to see the assistant stammer out an apology, Akira didn't think her partner had it in him to instigate such reactions. She cracked a smile, which slowly faded as Tsuru began explaining, his own views.

She shrugged slowly and smacked the metal with the hammer, the sound still echoed of incompetence. 'They have the option of going after money and fame...' she muttered. She waited for the assistant to busy himself before adding 'Thanks for your vote of confidence, but, in all honesty, it is true that rejects are the ones that settle for Rune Knights, myself included...' she said bluntly.

'And I hate to break it to you, while you might be doing good for the sake of it, not everyone is like you, the Rune Knights are hardly about justice, we're just the agents of the council... and the council, like any other organization, is vulnerable to all sorts perverse internal motives.' her tone wasn't even riddled with her usual drab pessimism, she was just stating the facts. In all reality, the sad state of the system frustrated her as much as it did Tsuru, she'd just learned to contain it better... Somewhat... Or channel it. The sound she produced as she hammered, was almost satisfactory this time.

Haru couldn’t believe Akira didn’t pursue her goal of joining Fairy Tail because of some random guy who told her she wouldn’t be accepted. “You really should have better opinion of yourself,” he told her frankly, as harsh as it may sound. “I did not even attempt joining any guild. Rune Knights was my first choice. I’m not a reject. I believe I could have joined any guild if I wanted to and you are not inferior to me. So… No! I do not believe Rune Knights are made up of rejects,” he said, hammering again. His hits were becoming weaker and weaker every round, but he kept going, not willing to give up. He thought it would be counter-productive to show weakness when he was trying to make them believe they are no less compared to guild members.

Hearing Akira’s perception of the council, Haru paused the hammering and spoke with purpose. “Well… If that is the case, then all the more reason motivated and talented people should join the ranks and strive to be part of the council. It does not do well to simply complain. We must be the change we wish to be.” And with that, he resumed the hammering.

Haru was on the verge of giving up; his arms were throbbing. They had been hammering for hours. Thankfully, Barras stepped in and saved the day. “Alright! Time for lunch break. We can resume after one hour,” he said. Haru dropped the hammer when he heard the word ‘break’ and fell on his bottom, sighing heavily.

The one-hour break was not nearly enough, but it was better than nothing. When the duo resumed, Haru focused more on hammering and less on speaking. Despite being seemingly confident in his argument, he couldn’t help but doubt his decision after the constant ridiculing the Rune Knights received everywhere he went. Maybe it’s because we are still at the bottom of the ladder, he consoled himself.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity and when Haru could no longer feel his arms, Barras called it day and paid them.

She narrowed her eyes and landed a particularly loud blow to the freshly molten iron, flattening it further, as Tsuru seemingly diagnosed her problems as a self-esteem issue. She wanted to protest, but it would break her focus and she'd just about learned to swing the hammer correctly, the effort required sent surges of pain every time she lifted the implement. A soft 'Good for you.' is all she could manage, through her gritted teeth.

As he went on to add that he wanted to be the change, she couldn't help but secretly admire his purpose, but the envy that gave birth to, did little to restrain the snarky bite she retorted with. 'Be my guest, I'm sure you can single-handedly wipe out everything wrong with the world because believe me when I say, you are alone in this, almost no one is as devoid of ulterior motives as you are...'

Whether she actually hurt him, or if there were some other external factors that affected his mood, she couldn't tell, but she did notice his demeanor change. Even though over the last few days, Akira had learned to tolerate Tsuru's presence, it was clear that seeing eye to eye was going to be very difficult for the two of them. Her partner had a nasty habit of being able to remain righteous and glaze everything, good or bad with a dollop of goodness and justice.

Post their disagreement, they took the break to recuperate in silence and following which, the only sound that filled the room, was the clash of metal on metal. At this point she'd picked up on one small trick, instead of putting in effort in actually hammering, all she did was lift the hammer and then let gravity assist its fall, only gently directing it... Ever so often she scanned Tsuru's face and he seemed a little conflicted and she didn't really want to be the one to snatch his rose-colored glasses off... So she was struck with an idea just as they collected the money and left the shop...